The floor is lava.

If you have Netflix (or know someone who has Netflix and can borrow their password) you may have noticed that there is a new game show on their called The Floor is Lava. It is literally a suped up version of the game we all played as kids. Ok, I assume we have all played this game,  but since we know what happens when you assume, I'm going to give you a brief description. (I make an a$$ out of myself enough, I don't need to include others.) So, when playing the floor is lava, the objective is to jump from solid object to solid object (typically furniture) without touching the floor because...well....the floor is lava and you will die. This is a game that can be played literally anywhere that has enough stable items to allow you to move around the room and in the Netflix show, the goal is to get from one side of the room to the other without landing in the lava. (The general consensus is it's colored water, because no one actually dies when they fall in.That would be bad for ratings.) There's a team of three and each person that makes it to the exit door is a point. If there's a tie, time is the tie breaker (in other words which ever team did it faster wins). Growing up we really didn't have as many rules but we weren't playing for a cool trophy or money either. Our prize was bragging rights when you were the last man standing. Also, our sets were not as cool, I mean we pretty much played in the living room (where as the game show can set up any room they want) and we were forced to use our imagination regarding the presence of lava on the floor (much to my mother's delight, it never occurred to us to cover the living room floor in colored water). 

Anyway, we would play this game from time to time, leaping from couch to coffee table to arm chair, throwing a pillow on the floor to "float" on the lava (this was often a point of discussion about whether or not it counted - eventually I think we decided there was a time limit for how long the pillow could "float"). I vaguely remember my brothers and I trying to push each other into the lava so we could win. (I'm pretty sure I never successfully pushed any of them into the lava.) It was silly and fun and kept us entertain for a while when we would play. As I'm thinking about it I think we usually played when my parents weren't home, which makes sense because most parents wouldn't encourage the jumping on furniture aspect of this game. It was fun and the game show is fun to watch, because let's be honest, we all wanted better props and "real lava". 

The thing about this game was/is that we had to pay attention because sometimes you jump from the couch to the rocking chair and the chair rocks and you fall off. You had to plan you moves carefully and look at the angles you were coming in on. I see this with the game show too. There was an episode where the contestants "were in the kitchen" and the chairs swiveled so every time someone jumped on the chair it would spin and they would lose their grip and fall off. The chair didn't look dangerous, but it was. The off spring and I have watched all the episodes at this point (we did not binge...really...) and one thing that male off spring noticed was that the teams who worked together did better. They had more people make it to the exit. In fact, he noted that the only teams who have ever had all three members make it to the exit worked together and took care of each other. Huh? Interesting observation from an adolescent boy. 

That's what got me thinking. Right now, life literally feels like the floor is lava. We are all jumping from one thing to another, hoping that it is stable and we won't get burned. We are leaping from trying to figure out how to return to school to trying to figure out how to teach (as an educator, believe me this is a HUGE stresser for us right now) to how to keep people safe to how to save the economy to what kind of masks to buy to the social unrest of racism and on and on and on. Sometimes we jump on one of those swiveling kitchen stools and we are just holding on for dear life, praying we don't fall off as the thing spins. We are all desperately trying not to fall in because it feels like if we do we will land in lava. I mean, everything is telling us that the floor is lava. Every time you open a newspaper (they still make those right?) or turn on the news or listen to a podcast (not the serial killer ones) or scroll through your social media someone, somewhere is telling you about the new lava they found and how you need to avoid it. So when my male off spring noted that the only teams where all three made it to the exit (meaning no one landed in the lava) were the teams that worked together I thought: HEY maybe that's what we need to be doing?!? Maybe we need to work together to get the other side of all of this. 

You know what else I realized, the floor probably isn't really lava. If I mess up and make the wrong decision, I'm probably not going to sink into a fiery pit of molten rock. Even though, right now, every time we turn around someone new is telling us how bad it is and how scary it is and how horrible everyone/everything is, the reality is telling us everything's going to be ok probably isn't going to get anyone to read that article or watch that sound bite. Please understand I'm not saying throw caution to the wind or assume that all the reports you are reading about any of the things going on in the world are a lie, what I'm saying is breathe. If your heart is racing every time you turn on the news, don't turn it on today. Call a friend instead. In the last week I have had four friends (including my sister in law I have talked about) reach out to me because they were "thinking of me" and I'll tell you what, they helped cool the fiery lava I was afraid of sinking into. They didn't even know I was standing on a pillow calculating how long I had left until I sank, they just heard a God whisper say "hey, check on Natalie" and they did and it helped me. The time I spent talking with them, not matter how brief (SIL and I talked for an hour and it was awesome!) reminded me that I'm alone. I'm not the only one trying to figure out how to navigate all this stuff. They also reminded me I don't have to figure it all out right now or by myself. I can bounce ideas off of them, I can share fears and get a simple "you know what, I get it" or I can ask for advice. My nieces and nephews are all past the teenager years and they are great people, so when I feel like I have no idea how to do this parenting thing, my SIL is a great resource who always helps me put it in perspective. 

God doesn't want us to be scared or alone. He wants us to be here for each other. He wants us to help each other. He wants us to be good Samaritans. He isn't setting the world the on fire, we are by seeing all the flames and swiveling bar stools instead of the solid pieces of furniture. He asks us to take care of each other, so if you see someone getting ready to leap onto something that is going to sink, simply offer them a more solid piece of furniture. A place to sit and breathe for a minute while you work together to talk about whatever helps. The floor isn't lava. That's just what the thief of our peace wants us to believe. So don't give him that power. Divided he can have all the control he wants, but when we stand together and say I got your back (or your couch) he loses power. God will show us how to get to the exit, but He put us here together for a reason. HE wants us to work together. HE wants us to let each other know where the real lava is and put up the caution signs.